Sources Sought Notification.pdf

INTRODUCTION

This is a Sources Sought Notice (SSN). This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, or quotations.

The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of qualified large businesses that are capable of providing services for the Small Business Education and Entrepreneurial Development (SEED) Innovator/Entrepreneurs in Residence (EiR) Support Services. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition strategy.

RESPONSE INFORMATION

The NIH/OD/OER/SEED office is looking to obtain support for the I-Corps for the NIH Program and the NIH Entrepreneurship Boot Camp Program. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) requires a contractor with proven qualifications and capabilities with efficient, workable, and tailored solutions to provide value-added services for the SEED’s core mission and operations. NICHD is seeking contract sources who have demonstrated experience in assisting requirements in similar scope, size, complexity, and magnitude to the activities being performed.

The capability statement shall sufficiently address how the responder’s support services will be delivered for the proposed requirement scope. The qualifying response for this notice must ensure that the offeror has the experience and capacity to take part in this specific type of requirement.

In particular, the responders SHALL address each of the information found within the Statement of Work.

INSTRUCTIONS TO INDUSTRY

All capable parties are encouraged to respond. Responses must directly demonstrate the company’s capability, experience, and ability to marshal resources to effectively and efficiently perform the objectives described above. Generic capability statements are not sufficient and will not be considered compliant with the requirements of this notice.

The Government requests interested parties submit a written response to this notice which includes:

a. Company point of contact, mailing address, and telephone number(s), and website address

b. If any, existing contract solutions by the company such as - Federal Supply Schedules contract, or any other procurement instruments intended for use by multiple agencies, e.g., Best in Class (BIC) contracts.

c. DUNS and socio-economic category of the company.

Disclaimer and Important Notes. This notice shall not obligate the Government to award contract. Any information provided by industry to the Government as a result of this sources sought synopsis is strictly voluntary. Responses will not be returned. No entitlements to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges to the Government will arise as a result of contractor submission of responses, or the Government's use of such information or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published on a government GPE. Furthermore, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

Confidentiality. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s). Responses must be submitted via email to Daniel.johnson5@nih.gov, no later than 12:00 P.M. EST on August 1, 2024.

Capability statements will not be accepted after the due date. The maximum number of pages for this submission is ten (10) pages.

STATEMENT OF WORK

I-Corps at NIH Program and NIH Entrepreneurship Boot Camp Program

Program: National Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of Extramural Research (OER), Small business Education and Entrepreneurial Development (SEED) Office

1 PURPOSE and BACKGROUND

The purpose of this procurement is for the NIH/OER/SEED office to 1) obtain support for the I- Corps at NIH program and 2) the NIH Entrepreneurship Boot Camp Program.

The Small Business Education and Entrepreneurial Development (SEED) office supports the NIH innovator community in their efforts to validate the potential health impacts of promising scientific discoveries and advance them into healthcare products that improve patient care and enhance health. Developing products across the biomedical spectrum requires NIH’s collaboration with universities and research institutions, small businesses, trade associations and societies, angel investors, venture capitalists, and strategic partners. SEED leads initiatives that develop these relationships and build opportunities for NIH innovators to further their product development efforts. SEED’s core business objectives are to provide services that enable investigators to convert scientific discoveries into impactful healthcare solutions, coordinate early-stage product development activities across the NIH, inspire and support a diverse entrepreneurial workforce, and demonstrate NIH’s role in improving patient care and driving economic growth.

Innovation Corps at NIH (I-Corps) program provides vital support to researchers and innovators through its experiential training program’s rigorous process of customer discovery and business model development. Under this program, NIH fosters the development of early-stage biomedical technologies, focusing on teaching researchers how to gain a clearer understanding of the value of their inventions in the marketplace, and ultimately how to advance their technologies from the research lab into the commercial world. This includes substantially increasing team’s knowledge and understanding of their market opportunities and moving the teams towards further funding success. Funding may be through further SBIR/STTR awards, customer funding, or equity-based funding. Since 2014, NIH has worked in refining the implementation and evaluation of the I-Corps program and have experienced growth of the national biomedical innovation ecosystem.

The NIH Entrepreneurship Boot Camp Program targets life science innovators in the pre- SBIR/STTR application or Phase 0 stage of their project development. Essentially, this program is envisioned as a potential precursor to the current I-Corps at NIH program. Piloted in 2024, the NIH Entrepreneurship Boot Camp Program has the potential to reach 240 individual teams each year with a maximum of 720 participants researchers and innovators working in the life sciences space.

I-Corps@NIH seeks to diversify and increase the number of qualified, trained, and effective NIH instructors. The program’s success to date is due in part to the experienced instructors who have guided teams and participants through the rigorous curriculum. To be effective educators, instructors must have extensive business experience, must be trained in the content and methodology of the I-Corps curriculum, foster credibility with their mastery of life science knowledge, and be able to build rapport with participants while simultaneously challenging them.

Finding, training, and cultivating I-Corps at NIH instructors requires significant time and resources. The current pool of faculty is relatively small given the present size of the I-Corps at NIH program and will be a significant obstacle if the program is expanded and scaled to other areas of NIH. Another challenge is the limited diversity of current faculty. In order to maximize America’s technological and economic potential, NIH I-Corps program has committed to making the innovation and entrepreneurship community more inclusive of underrepresented groups.

Training more faculty from these groups – including women and minority faculty – will enhance efforts to attract and support budding entrepreneurs from these diverse, underrepresented groups.

2 SCOPE

The scope of this contract is to provide professional expertise and technical support in administering the I-Corps at NIH Program (Task 1) and administering the NIH Entrepreneurship Boot Camp Program (Task 2).

Task 1:

The contractor shall support the administration of the I-Corps at NIH Program through intensive training in business model development and customer validation to two cohorts of teams selected by NIH with a minimum of 19 teams and a maximum of 24 teams each cohort. Each cohort’s training will include a three day in-person kickoff workshop, six weeks of virtual training and coaching, and a two day in-person closing workshop. Each cohort will be guided by a team of six expert I-Corps instructors, one teaching assistant, and several facilitators to assist virtual sessions. The cohorts shall be tentatively scheduled as follows (schedule and dates to be finalized between the Government and Contractor after award):

● I-Corps Cohort 1 Winter begins March 2025 and ends April 2025

● I-Corps Cohort 2 Spring begins May 2025 and ends June 2025

Task 2:

The contractor shall support the administration of the entirely virtual NIH Entrepreneurship Boot Camp Program through online instruction, lectures, discussions, and videos for two cycles of cohorts selected by NIH with a minimum of 80 teams and a maximum of 120 teams per cycle.

Six to eight teams will be assigned to one instructor for the entire cohort. Each NIH Entrepreneurship Boot Camp will be guided by a team of up to 20 expert I-Corps instructors and several facilitators to assist all virtual sessions. Each cycle shall be scheduled as follows (schedule and dates to be finalized between the Government and Contractor after award):

● Bootcamp Cycle 1 Spring quarter from April through June of 2025

● Bootcamp Cycle 2 Summer quarter from July through August of 2025

3 MANAGEMENT

The contractor shall:

● Provide for the overall management, integration, and coordination of all contract activities, including the management and coordination of activities carried out under any subcontracts.

● Provide a technical and administrative infrastructure to ensure the efficient planning, initiation, implementation, and timely completion of all tasks carried out under this contract for in-person, virtual, or hybrid events and effective communications with the SEED Technical Monitor (TM), COR and CO.

● Provide a Senior-Level Project Manager, with responsibility for overall task management and communications, tracking, monitoring, and reporting on task status and progress, and recommending modifications to task requirements (as within scope) and timelines, including tasks undertaken by subcontractors

● Meet monthly with the COR and TM to discuss and review pilot planning, quality control issues, delivery schedules, and costs/budget matters as necessary. The contractor shall be responsible for documenting any action items. In addition, the contractor, in collaboration with the COR and SEED TM, shall determine any necessary changes to the frequency of these meetings throughout the life of this contract.

● Submit a bi-monthly Status Report – due every two months by the 15th business day of the month.

4 TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

Independently and not as an agent of the government, the contractor shall be required to furnish all the necessary services, qualified personnel, material, equipment, and facilities, not otherwise provided by the government, as needed to perform this Statement of Work (SOW).

4.1 Task 1: I-Corps at NIH Cohort Technical Support

The contractor shall coordinate and provide the overall support for the I-Corps at NIH Program in conducting the following activities as it relates to each cohort:

● Provide I-Corps instructors from life science business backgrounds who are educated in the content, methodology, and management tools of the I-Corps at NIH program. The collection of instructors shall be as diverse as possible, to enable instructors to build rapport with participants from diverse backgrounds.

● Provide a teaching assistant, and contractors to manage virtual sessions

● Secure a venue for space, including hotel rooms and audio-visual services.

Locations for the kick-off sessions are to be determined in consultation with the NIH program manager.

● Assist NIH in conducting phone interviews for team selection prior to each cohort.

● Provide logistical coordination and communications to the teams and consultants before, during and after each cohort.

● As applicable, provide all the required classroom materials to the teams including syllabus, access to online videos, access to online classrooms or lessons, and/or access to the course management software.

● Make the required arrangements for travel and accommodations for all consultants (faculty) for both the kickoff and closing workshops for each cohort.

● Ensure and coordinate so that an Event Manager and Program Officer will be on site for each cohort.

● Provide the platform for the 6-week online sessions along with two additional hosts (there are three sessions that run concurrently; one is managed by the TA, the other two by the other contractors).

● Conduct a pre-course intake survey, an evaluation of the kickoff workshop, and a final course evaluation. Upon completion of each survey and/or evaluation the contractor will provide NIH/OER/SEED with the results in a timely manner.

Contractor staff will consult with NIH/OER/SEED to review the survey results and assess the need, if any, to amend the survey instruments. These activities include but are not limited to the following:

▪ Roster prep/cleaning/searches for wrong or bounce back emails/new email searches (e.g., those who are with a new company), dealing with repeat participants.

▪ Administration of the survey, such as a 2-month fielding period, monitoring of response rates overall and by role and cohort, and one-on-one communications with participants. Make any needed edits of the survey instrument.

▪ Data outcomes report.

▪ Follow-up requests.

▪ Interviewing a select number of former participants and summary of results (includes communication, setup time, light transcription, analysis, and summary).

▪ Obtaining base-level data on businesses created by teams attending I- Corps @NIH workshops to include address, website, business status, and date of incorporation if applicable.

NIH/OER/SEED will provide a minimum of 19 teams up to a maximum of 24 teams per cohort.

4.2 Task 2: NIH Entrepreneurship Boot Camp Program Technical Support

The contractor shall coordinate and provide the overall support for the following recommended schedule and activities (to include but not limited to):

● Virtual Bootcamp Kick-Off Meeting and Introductions. Preferred to be no longer than 2hrs and to include all participants.

● Week 1-6 have a series of 2hr Pod Sessions (a Pod consists of an instructor and 6- 8 companies) & Office Hours (companies meet with their Pod instructors one-on-one).

▪ Week 1 Pod Session One

▪ Week 2 Office Hours

▪ Week 3 Pod Session Two

▪ Week 4 Office Hours

▪ Week 5 Pod Session Three

▪ Week 6 Office Hours

● Lessons Learned Presentation during which each company gives their presentation to assembled teams from several Pods (grouped by program director) and receives feedback from their instructors. Contractor shall develop an agenda and share with the SEED PM no later than 3 weeks in advance of each cohort.

● Bootcamp Curriculum that encompasses the following milestones and hands-on assignments (subject to change based on curriculum development and recommendations from contractor after award):

▪ Viewing of 10-minute video, “Conducting Customer Discovery Interviews.”

▪ Crafting a first draft of the team's Business Model Canvas.

▪ Attendance to a Kick-Off Webinar

▪ Preparation of an Interim Progress Report.

▪ Sharing the Interim Progress Report mid-way through the program.

▪ Interviewing a minimum of 30 prospective (not current) customers between the Kick-Off webinar and virtual Lessons Learned Presentations.

▪ Creation of the virtual Lessons Learned Presentation for presentation at the culminating virtual workshop.

Use of the NIH logo is prohibited for events. The following statement must be included on workshop materials, including promotional materials, agenda, and web sites:

“Funding for this workshop was made possible in part by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services. The views expressed in written workshop materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.”

4.3 Technical and Logistical Support I-Corps at NIH Cohort Task 1

The contractor shall provide support in planning and administering all the technical and logistical aspects of the I-Corps at NIH Program

● Coordinating, contacting, inviting, and making arrangements for instructors and/or consultants (faculty) for in-person events. Any travel shall be the responsibility of the contractor and shall not be covered by this contract.

● Determining the appropriate I-Corps at NIH event location and venue for any in-person events.

● The contractor shall ensure participation of women, racial/ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, and other individuals who have been traditionally underrepresented in science, as program instructors in accordance with the Notice of NIH's Interest in Diversity (NOT-OD-20-031).

● Determining and executing a virtual platform for virtual sessions to include technical assistance pre, during, and post event.

● Providing I-Corp at NIH materials that support participant learning during the event.

● Developing and administering an evaluation of participants assessment of the I-Corp at NIH cohort. Upon completion, the contractor shall provide all evaluation data, to include a summary with the positive and negative data and recommendations to mitigate the negatives based on the evaluation data to the government no later than 30 calendar days after the end of each cohort.

4.4 Technical and Logistical Support NIH Entrepreneurship Boot Camp Program

Task 2

The contractor shall provide support in planning and administering all the technical and logistical aspects of the Bootcamp Program.

● Coordinating, contacting, inviting, and making arrangements for instructors and/or consultants (faculty) for virtual events.

● Determining and executing a virtual platform for virtual sessions to include technical assistance pre, during, and post event.

● Providing I-Corp at NIH materials that support participant learning during the event.

● Developing and administering an evaluation of participants assessment of the Boot

Camp. Upon completion, the contractor shall provide all evaluation data, to include a summary with the positive and negative data and recommendations to mitigate the negatives based on the evaluation data to the government no later than 30 calendar days after the end of each cohort.

5 Deliverables

The Contractor shall provide complete deliverables that are accurate, error-free, completed within budget, and submitted in accordance with the delivery schedule as specified. All deliverables shall be in acceptable electronic file format (pdf, Word, Excel) and submitted as attachments via email.

• Bi-monthly Status Report – due every two months by the 15th calendar day of the month. Submit electronically a bi-monthly status report to OER/SEED and CO/COR.

The Contractor shall work with OER/SEED to ensure the format and quality of information is clear, concise, and easy to understand without further explanation. The bi-monthly status report shall at a minimum include the following:

o Description of any problems that may have incurred during the analysis and report preparation process.

o Recommended solutions for resolving any issues that may have occurred during the reporting period.

o Any scheduling concerns or if the contractor anticipates any delays for anticipated delays shall be provided.

● Provide a management plan detailing the process for identifying, training, and implementing a diverse faculty pool for I-Corps at NIH and NIH Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, including an evaluation plan that includes relevant demographic analysis.

● Task 1 & Task 2 Cohort Schedules – date to be mutually agreed upon after award.

● Task 1 & Task 2 Cohort Agendas – due no later than 3 weeks in advance of each cohort.

● Task 1 & Task 2 Curriculum – date to be mutually agreed upon after award.

● Task 1 & Task 2 Participant Assessment Evaluation data, to include a summary with the positive and negative data and recommendations to mitigate the negatives based on the evaluation data – due within 30 calendar days of each cohort completion.